1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a door of a motor vehicle, and more particularly to a motor-vehicle door having a window winder or regulator, a method of assembling the motor-vehicle door, and a window sash assembly particularly suitable for use in the motor-vehicle door.
2. Description of the Related Art
Motor-vehicle doors of the type concerned include a door body composed of an inner door panel and an outer door panel, a window sash or frame extending upwardly from an upper edge of the door body, a movable window panel (glass pan) held in the window sash, and a window winder or regulator operative to move the window panel up and down and hold it in position for opening and closing an window opening defined between the window sash and the door body.
Several known examples of such motor-vehicle doors are disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Publications Nos. HEI 3-14279, HEI 3-88914 and HEI 3-123086, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,088.
In the disclosed motor-vehicle doors, the window regulator is mounted on the door body side, and more particularly on the inside surface of, for example, an outer door panel. The window regulator thus mounted is structurally independent from the window sash.
In general, the known motor-vehicle doors are assembled through the processes enumerated below:
(1) attaching a door winder or regulator to the inside surface of, for example, an outer door panel; PA1 (2) assembling together the outer door panel and an inner door panel to form a door body; PA1 (3) attaching a window sash or frame to an upper part of the door body; and PA1 (4) providing the window sash with a window panel (glass pan), thereby obtaining an assembled motor-vehicle door.
Due to a relatively large number of assembling processes needed, the known motor-vehicle doors are laborious to assembly and rendered costly to manufacture.
In addition, since the window regulator mounted on the outer door panel is structurally independent from the window sash, the window panel held in the window sash is liable to be improperly aligned due to an assembling error between the window regulator and the window panel, and an assembling error between the window panel and the window sash. In order to obtain a properly aligned window panel, an adjustment is made to adjust the relative position between the window panel, the window regulator and the window sash after the above-mentioned assembling processes (1)(4) are completed. The adjustment, however, incurs an additional cost. This problem becomes serious when the window panel is a curved window panel.
Another problem is that a mount base used for attaching the window regulator to the outer door panel, and a guide mechanism and members used for guiding the window panel increase the number of structural components of the door body, require an additional positioning process, and render the door complicated in construction and costly to manufacture.